Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology has made it possible to carry hundreds of wavelength channels over a single optical fiber at rates of 10 Gb/s and beyond. Although electronic packet switching (EPS) can switch at the packet level and provide a rich set of traffic management, the cost to support a large number of DWDM channels is high due to the cost of O/E/O conversion. On the other hand, while optical switching technologies can cost effectively scale to support a large number of DWDM channels, neither of the two practical optical switching technologies, namely, optical circuit switching (OCS), and optical burst switching (OBS), can switch at the packet level. To solve this dilemma, the invention described in this disclosure provides a method for DWDM multi-mode wavelength scheduling in any of the three switching modes: OBS, OCS and EPS.